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The equivalent of 3,500 police officers could be freed for frontline duties if bureaucracy and red tape were cut back, a top-level review has claimed.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, chief inspector of constabulary for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, revealed the results of a nine-month review of modern policing.

He recommended that more backroom police work could be done by civilian staff and stop and search forms, which take 30 minutes to complete, should be simplified. "The 21st century police service is in danger of becoming a slave to doctrine and straitjacketed by process," he said.

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, said stop and search forms would be scrapped in three pilot areas.

Housing threat to jobless

Council tenants should seek work as a condition of getting a home, said Caroline Flint, the recently appointed housing minister. She said that a "no one works round